Mountain Parkway Team Refines Options
Latest plans for Mountain Parkway Expansion to Prestonsburg
Mountain Parkway team refines corridor for cross-country option
Public invited to learn more and provide feedback at Nov. 19 meeting
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (November 17, 2015) – The Mountain Parkway Expansion team has refined plans for a cross-country alternative to extend the parkway between Salyersville and Prestonsburg.
No decision has been made on whether to widen the parkway along the existing corridor (KY 114) or build a new road along a cross-country corridor to the north of KY 114. However, further study over the last few months has allowed the project team to provide more details about the potential benefits and costs of a cross-country route.
The public is invited to learn updated details on both options at a meeting from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, November 19, at Prestonsburg Elementary School, 140 South Clark Road. Comment forms will be available for residents to provide feedback to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the project team.
Project team members will display detailed maps and set up computer workstations to show residents how properties might be affected by the two alternatives. A short video with animated renderings will give the public an idea of what each option might look like.
Hundreds of residents attended a meeting in Prestonsburg in April to learn preliminary details about the two options and provide feedback.
“We reviewed the feedback we received at April’s meeting, and that feedback was one of several factors weighed during months of follow-up study,” said Marshall Carrier, a KYTC engineer who is project manager for the Mountain Parkway Expansion. “We have a lot of variables to consider. The Mountain Parkway is going to be around for a long time, so we want to be sure we make a thoughtful choice about how to expand it.”
About the Mountain Parkway Expansion
The Mountain Parkway Expansion is a 46-mile transportation improvement project that will create a wider, safer connection between Eastern Kentucky and the rest of the Commonwealth. It is a key transportation project designed to close the only gap in a 400-mile, four-lane, high-speed corridor for commerce and mobility across Kentucky from Pikeville to Paducah. The project will widen 30 miles of the existing parkway from two lanes to four lanes, and will extend the parkway another 16 miles by widening KY 114 between Salyersville and Prestonsburg.
The Mountain Parkway Expansion is a key project of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) initiative. Launched by Gov. Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers in 2013, SOAR is designed to help the region develop and put into action new locally-oriented strategies to attack persistent challenges related to job training, health, education and economic development.
